Or maybe it was responsible for a friend’s new interior design. Or maybe you’re a marketer who’s heard all of this and is wondering — how does Pinterest work?

Why does it matter for brands, and how do you know if it’s a good fit for your business?

Nick Westergaard

Simply put, Pinterest is a visually engaging social bookmarking system. Users, called “pinners,” create “boards” based on topics to which they “pin” things of interest. (Pins + interest — get it?)

Social bookmarking is not a new thing by any stretch. Services such as Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit have been at it for years.

But Pinterest has reinvented this medium by making it appealing and approachable for those outside the digerati.

These appealing efforts have paid off, as comScore reports that Pinterest currently has 4 million users and is growing rapidly. In December 2011, it entered the top 10 social networks, according to Hitwise data, with a total of 11 million visits per week — 40 times the amount in the comparable 6-month period before.

The approachability factor is evident in the user demographics with over 58 percent female (down from 70 percent prior) with a majority being between the ages of 25 and 44 years old. Also of note, users in the Midwest are up to 102 percent more likely to visit Pinterest than elsewhere.

This stands in stark contrast to other networks, which are usually adopted on the coasts and work their way in.

Why Pinterest Matters

When you take a step back and look, it’s clear that Pinterest is answering a critical need in our digital lives.

There’s too much information online. Last year Google’s Eric Schmidt revealed that every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.

In short, we need help getting through it all. That’s where Pinterest serves as a socially curated map to things we discover, like and share online.

But solving this information overload in a graphically pleasing way is only part of the Pinterest equation. Behind all of those pins lies a rich warehouse filled with links and metadata.

These may look like photos, videos and links, but amassed they become valuable customer insights.

This socially reinforced content joins Google+ in jarring the world of traditional search and altering how companies gain visibility online.

How Are Brands Using It?

Given this potential, it’s no surprise that many brands already have colonized on Pinterest, utilizing the network in various ways.

“The Today Show” ends in the morning but pins all day, mixing lifestyle references from on-air features (fitness, travel, etc.) with actual news (Gabrielle Giffords stepping down). The Weather Channel pins storm photos.

Real Simple and Martha Stewart have boards aligned with their editorial calendars and product categories. Whole Foods shares a mix of savory meals along with topics that highlight their customers’ ethos such as gardening.

Nordstrom uses Pinterest to learn about customers and gain insights into trends and style. Greek yogurt Chobani finds a balance of content that celebrates their product and explores off-topic areas of interest.

Is Pinterest Right for Your Brand?

Most brands that find a good fit on Pinterest either have an obvious visual appeal that can be showcased or a strong ethos and culture that allow them to pin symbolic pictures that evoke key components of the brand’s DNA. Examples include:

•  Lifestyle — Food, travel, sports, pets
•  Design focused — Architecture, interior and industrial design, technology
•  Event driven — Weddings, entertaining, seasonal/holidays
•  Apparel — Men’s, women’s, children’s; high fashion to sportswear; accessories
•  Media/publishing — TV shows, magazines, websites.

For the right brands, the results can be impressive. Real Simple magazine — an ideal fit based on both visual appeal and audience demographics — has seen more recent website referrals from Pinterest than Facebook, according to AdAge.

Before Your Brand Starts Pinning

If you think Pinterest might be a good fit for your brand, there are a few things of which you should be aware:

•  Pins can be photos (the most popular type), videos, discussions or gifts. Of note, “gifts” can be assigned a price.
•  You can tag other users with the @ symbol as in Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
•  Remember to include keywords in your pin descriptions for better SEO.
•  While there are no rules about only following those who follow you, like Google+, you should experiment with Pinterest as an opt-in platform and only follow others once they follow your business.
•  As with all networks, watch your signal-to-noise ratio to ensure that you’re sharing more than you’re self-promoting.
•  Encourage pinning by adding the easy-to-install buttons that Pinterest provides on your product pages or blog content. As with all networks, your results are greatly diminished if you don’t promote them.
•  Pictures are literally worth more than words in a visual medium such as Pinterest. As such, you should create pin-ready photos that are nice and big.

To Pin or Not to Pin

Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ — oh, my! As new social networks continue to crop up, many are feeling overwhelmed.

As our online media becomes even more fractured, defining your social media strategy for each platform is key.

Pinterest is certainly seeing exceptional growth, especially in demographics not prone to early adoption. And if you’ve spent any time on the network you may have noted that once you start pining, it can be addictive.

However, the brand applications for Pinterest are a little narrower. It’s not clear what b2b brands can do here, or traditional sectors such as manufacturing and health care.

In short, you need to take a look at the network, play around a bit, follow others in your space and determine if Pinterest is a good fit for your brand.

Many organizations struggle with implementing ERM and identifying how, and at what level, to integrate the system into their business. Managers often indicate they already are aware of the relevant risks for their respective areas of the business.

Bill Vincent

In these situations, what value can ERM provide, and how can it enable any better perspective or management of risks and risk data?

The most impact and recognition of value is often perceived more at the executive and director levels than other layers of management. Five key benefits and values from ERM include:

1. Increased consistency and communication

ERM provides a standard terminology and conceptual framework for all members and departments in the organization. This consistency and commonality provides improved opportunities for communication and coordination among various layers and departments.

In addition, communication regarding risk is often lacking within organizations due to concerns of confidentiality, propriety and job security. As a result, data and information relative to strategic risks — and risks to achievement of corporate objectives and plans — are not shared across department lines.

2. Enhanced reporting implementation

ERM supports better structure, reporting and analysis of risks. Risk “dashboards” — consolidating risks across the entire enterprise — increase the focus of directors and executives, enabling better decisions relative to risk thresholds, risk appetite and risk tolerance.

The reporting, therefore, has better categorization and classification of risk data, allowing various types of reporting — department versus entity-wide, financial versus compliance, high versus low risk, quantitative versus qualitative factors, etc.

Ultimately the greatest overall value from ERM and related reporting is the timeliness, conciseness and flexibility, which facilitate improved decision-making capabilities within the executive and director levels, and in other layers of management.

ERM helps unlock synergies and potential for increased analysis and assessment of risks by aggregating and sharing all corporate risk data and factors, and evaluating them on a consolidated basis.

3. Improved focus and perspective of risk-data use

ERM methodologies and techniques provides a means to further identify and assess key performance indicators regarding risks.
This allows a method to measure and better quantify risk factors and tolerances.

The use of key metrics and measurements of risk further improve the value of reporting and analysis.

ERM models also permit more effective and complete viewpoints of risk. Traditional risk practices focus on risk from a perspective of mitigation, acceptance or avoidance.

However, effective ERM processes will give management a framework in which to evaluate risk as an opportunity to increase competitive positions and exploit certain market, operational and related conditions.

4. More Efficient Coordination of Regulatory and Compliance Matters

Bond rating agencies, financial statement auditors, regulatory examiners and other audit activities — including internal audit — have begun to test and often leverage and use monitoring and reporting data from ERM programs. As ERM data involves identifying and monitoring controls and mitigations relevant to various risks across the organization, this information can provide an effective means for leveraging and reducing the effort and cost of such audits and reviews.

5. Cost Effective Management of Risk

Through all of the items noted above, ERM can enable better cost management and cost effectiveness related to audit activities; better management of market, competitive and economic conditions; and increased leverage and consolidation of disparate risk management functions.

Organizations can use ERM data and reporting to more effectively coordinate with investment custodians, better manage capital/investment decisions and make more timely decisions regarding hedging instruments.

By potentially reducing the overall cost of risk-management processes, reducing audit costs or minimizing resources needed for regulatory responses, and streamlining monitoring and reporting functions, ERM has the capability to reduce the cost of the existing processes and functions for these respective components within the organization.

What is ERM?

ERM is a process that is:

•  Implemented by the entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel.
•  Applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise.
•  Designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk within the risk appetite and/or risk tolerance.
•  Implemented to provide reasonable assurance regarding mitigation, avoidance and management of risk factors and circumstances, as well as promote opportunities to capitalize on risk events and thresholds.

After all, no matter how many times my friend Bill and I stopped by the pet section of the S.S. Kresge five-and-dime, the little green reptiles would be piled on top of each other in a heap at a corner of their plastic display. It was as if they were trying to make a break for it, figuring the turtles at the peak would climb over, then drop a rope ladder or something for their fellow prisoners at the bottom of the tank.

We thought we were helping by lifting each turtle off the pile and redistributing them comfortably throughout their tub. But maybe not.

The Kresge turtle display was just one of our many checkpoints at the then-burgeoning Boardman Plaza, erected far enough from the odors and black rain created daily by the miles of then-bustling Youngstown, Ohio, steel mills. My parents had moved to what was then the suburbs to get away from the mills and closer to the promise of less crime and stronger schools.

Our tiny house was literally just behind the plaza, and I was in the stores of that strip mall — at its height of popularity proclaimed to be the largest such shopping center in the world, with 623,000 square feet — every single day. So when I say I pretty much grew up in retail, I’m not only talking about how my father spent his entire professional life managing stores.

Michael Chevy Castranova

On our way home from school each afternoon, Bill and I would drop by the drugstore to see what new comic books had come in — until we figured out the new stuff was delivered only once a week. Later at the hardware store we’d paw among the paperbacks we’d be murdered for bringing home. (Yes, the hardware store sold paperback books, too — I can’t explain it.)

Less religiously we’d go into the various five-and-dimes — Kresge, Grant’s, Woolworth’s — for something to eat or to annoy the clerks by snapping through the record albums we couldn’t afford to buy. And, on a good day, there also was J.C. Penney, Hill’s giant discount store, a handful of groceries, some small clothing shops, a decent bakery and even a bowling alley-pool hall.

We cruised each every day, just in case something had changed.

The plaza also was the default meeting spot. Fights were set for somewhere along the milelong back parking lot.

If we’d run into some girls at the high school football game the evening before, the mating ritual always began with, “You’re going to be at the plaza tomorrow …?” (You already know about the legendary connection between northeast Ohio and Friday night high school football, right? To my surprise, I’ve been told a fair number of folk actually went to watch the games.)

When I visited my parents this past autumn, I drove over to the plaza. It still stands, though many of the storefronts are vacant, and what is occupied are, for the most part, low-rent — they sell cigarettes, scrapbook supplies or remaindered greeting cards.

Crowds back in the mid-1970s shifted a half-mile east uphill to the Southern Park Mall, a 1.1 million-square-foot enclosed shopping center that today boasts the likes of Macy’s, Dillard’s and a movie house.

You go in, get your socks or back-to-school clothes, your hardback book, your greeting card, then leave. Where’s the fun in that?

After moving to Columbus, I got a job at a glossy statewide magazine headquartered downtown. As the state capital, the city center had everything you’d expect — a dominant statehouse, commanding statues, plenty of banks, old-line restaurants, hotels small and large, stuffy lobbyists’ offices and historic theaters for stage productions, ballet and opera, as well as enough newsstands and used-bookstores to keep any budding journalist occupied.

But in 1989, Columbus unveiled a downtown enclosed shopping center — 17 years in the making and costing $200 million to build, as I wrote at the time in a story about its construction.

High expectations were rooted in the 100-store Columbus City Center, as the mall was named. It was “always the great hope,” one city planner told me at the time. “It’s going to realize a dream, one greater than anybody ever thought it might be,” a well-established Columbus architect added.

Whew.

At first, the two-story retail-and-office complex was packed with downtown office workers, attendees at events at the huge convention center a few blocks north, and suburbanites in for a meal and a tour of the up-ticket clothing stores.

But over time, those expensive brand names gave way to lower-end shops — the high-toned establishments couldn’t draw enough shoppers — and gangs replaced couples with strollers. Harpists and wine-tastings were supplanted by teenagers with empty wallets and outbursts of violence.

In 2010, while I was in town for a conference at Ohio State, I drove by the Columbus City Center, just to see how it fared.

It was gone. Flattened.

From South High Street I could see straight across to Third Street. Where 19 years earlier had stood the great hope of the city was now an empty lot.

It didn’t live up to its dreams. Today the downtown is vibrant with baseball and National Hockey League stadiums, but shoppers moved on, many to the far northern suburbs where Les Wexner, head of Limited Brands — at one time or other parent to The Limited, Lane Bryant, Abercrombie & Fitch, Henri Bendel and Victoria’s Secret, among others — had built Easton Town Center.

Easton — which Wexner erected with various partners, including Arnold Schwarzenegger (he’s a story for another day) — presented each store as free-standing. Together, they created a mini-Georgian-themed village of shops and restaurants surrounded, moat-like, by a parking lot circle.

So the wheel of retail turns, from outdoor strip centers to enclosed malls to big box behemoths to retail towns inspired by 18th and 19th century English monarchs. And we keep an eye on the many dark windows in Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids and the ongoing developments at Iowa River Landing in Coralville.

Shopping preferences change. Retail trends follow and developers try for something new. Sometimes.

Though, if it were me, I’d try adding turtles.

“IPPA works hard to offer educational sessions that can assist producers in their day-to-day decision making,” said Tyler Bettin, IPPA producer education director. “We encourage anyone with a genuine interest in pork production to attend these conferences.”

All sessions are hosted from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Conference dates and locations are as follows:

• Tuesday, March 6 – Carroll, Carroll County Extension Office
•  Wednesday, March 7 – Sheldon, Northwest Iowa Community College, Building A, room 119
• Thursday, March 8 – Nashua, Borlaug Learning Center
• Friday, March 9 – Iowa City, Johnson County Extension Office

Conferences are free for those who pre-register or $5 at the door. Individuals can pre-register by calling IPPA at (800) 372-7675 or sending an e-mail to schristensen@iowapork.org.

With the regulatory realm for agriculture constantly changing, it is critical for pork producers to stay well informed of compliance issues.

Eldon McAfee, attorney for IPPA, will discuss practical aspects of compliance with state and federal regulations, provide an update of resent livestock nuisance cases and preface current regulatory rumblings at the state and federal level.

It is critical for all in pork production to have a good understanding of contracts and liens to provide protection of their business. McAfee also will review contract terms, focusing on practical implication for both feeders and hog owners.

He will discuss recent and pending court decisions and the implications these decisions pose for feed dealers, lenders, veterinarians and pork producers.

Finally, he will explain the federal livestock contract requirements and what is required for compliance to prevent penalties against hog owners for failing to have required disclosures in contracts with contract feeders. If you missed Eldon’s highly rated sessions at the 2012 Iowa Pork Congress, then this is your chance to catch up.

Swine dysentery is an expensive and damaging disease that has re-emerged in the Midwest. Dr. Eric Burrough and Dr. Rodger Main will split duties at this year’s regional conferences to talk about the history and impact of the disease.

They will provide information to help producers identify signs of dysentery and highlight strategies for prevention and elimination.

Detailed production records are increasingly important in today’s pork industry to benchmark performance, improve efficiencies and modify practices. ISU Extension swine specialists will review how to keep adequate wean-to-finish records, show where errors typically occur and provide actual examples of good records, gone bad.

ISU swine specialists also will offer free PQA Plus training prior to each conference. Training will be hosted from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at each conference location. Contact Tyler Bettin at (800) 372-7675 or tbettin@iowapork.org for more information or to pre-register.

Specifically, SGI and IDT will work together to construct custom, synthetic, double-stranded nucleic acids up to 5 kb.

Read the full story at www.icadgroup.com/news (click the story headline).

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In addition to the third annual Luncheon Series, Diversity Focus introduces the inaugural SHIFT Lecture Series with director Jordan Thierry and the Iowa premier of his film, The Black Fatherhood Project, in Mt Vernon (February 15), Iowa City, (February 17,) and Cedar Rapids (February 18).

All SHIFT Luncheon Speaker Series events are from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, includes lunch, at $50 per attendee. Registration is required and can be made at www.diversityfocus.org/shift. All SHIFT Lecture Series events are free and open to the public, and do not require registration. You can also find more information at www.diversityfocus.org/shift.

The SHIFT Lecture Series begins in February, with a screening of The Black Fatherhood Project, a film directed by Jordan Thierry, describing the family dynamics and roles of the African-American male as a father figure. Diversity Focus has partnered with Cornell College’s Office of Cultural Affairs, University of Iowa’s Center for Diversity & Enrichment and The Hubbard Group, the African-American Museum of Iowa, and In the Company of Men for this event.

The SHIFT Lecture Series events are at the following locations: February 15, 2012, 6:00 p.m. at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa; February 17, 2012, 7:00 p.m at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; and February 18, 2012, 11:00 a.m. at the African American Museum of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The SHIFT Luncheon Speaker Series starts on April 18, 2012 at the Coralville Marriott with John Quinones, ABC News correspondent and Primetime host. Mr. Quinones is also the host of ABC’s What Would You Do?, a series of reports that test human nature through hidden camera scenarios. In his career, he has covered various topics including the Chilean Miners disaster, following a young man to Colombia in search of his birth mother, a polygamous religious sect, and homeless children.

The next SHIFT Luncheon Speaker will be held on August 7, 2012 at the Kirkwood Hotel with Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone. Canada has been featured in the 2010 documentary Waiting for Superman, showcasing the downturn of the public school system in America.

Mr. Canada has 20-plus years experience in education and has been nationally recognized for his work helping children and families stay on track throughout their personal and professional lives.

The final SHIFT Luncheon Speaker will be held on September 13, 2012, at the Kirkwood Hotel with Michael Soon Lee, retail sales and marketing diversity expert. Lee is the president of Ethoconnect, a consulting and training company specializing in selling to the multicultural market in America.

He has spoken around the world on topics of marketing and selling to the diverse marketplace and understanding how different cultures buy products. His clients include Coca-Cola, National Association of Music Merchants, Alticor and many others.

“We will continue to bring world-class speakers to the region and challenge our attendees to “SHIFT” the way they think about diversity. Diversity Focus plans to create an environment of action,” says Chad Simmons, Interim Executive Director. “We have expanded the “SHIFT” brand, so we can reach more people and develop more opportunities for the community, to explore solutions to making the Corridor a better place to live and work.”

Diversity Focus was established in 2005 as a non-profit organization devoted to enhancing the diversity of the Cedar Rapids – Iowa City corridor.
Diversity Focus Vision:
Diversity is the crucial link to economic, cultural, academic, and technological success. Diversity Focus’ vision is that the Corridor community be the model of inclusion that values, nurtures, attracts, and retains people of diverse backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.
For more information about Diversity Focus, please visit www.diversityfocus.org.

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“We believe food safety is not proprietary,” says Kristine Knobloch, training and development supervisor for West Liberty Foods (WLF). “West Liberty Foods’ commitment to food safety benefits all consumers and companies in the industry.”

Founded in 1996 by the Iowa Turkey Growers Cooperative, the company began its comprehensive food safety training effort in 2002. West Liberty Foods had just opened a second plant in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and wanted to develop a mandatory food safety training course for the employees.

Read the full story at www.icadgroup.com/news.  Just click on the news headline.

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“With one of the largest unrestricted endowments of any community foundation our size in the country, the GCRCF will invest more than $1 million in both organizations and outcomes this year in capacity building and programmatic activities,” said Karla Twedt-Ball, Vice President of Programs.

“The new grant program framework is a culmination of a process the Community Foundation started in 2008 before the flood,” said Twedt-Ball. “With the help of a grant task force, the committee on grant making, the GCRCF board of directors and dozens of local nonprofits, GCRCF grant awards will continue to benefit both organizations and the community.”

The grant process has been streamlined to provide nonprofits additional flexibility in choosing which of the three application deadlines work best for their planning purposes, a shorter and simplified application, an increase in multi-year and grant renewal opportunities and extending some grant awards for up to three years for organizations with significant longevity and stability.

Key changes to the grant structure includes:

The Program Grant Fund supports new and innovative programs and sustains current and/or ongoing programs with grant awards from $5,000 to $50,000 (grant amounts dependent on age of organization, operating budget and demonstration of outcomes).

The Capacity Grant Fund supports nonprofits’ ability to fulfill their missions through organizational development grant awards and endowment challenge grant awards. Organizations that have been functioning for two years or longer may apply for organizational development grant awards from $2,000 to $15,000 (grant amounts dependent on age of organization and operating budget). These grants support projects that improve organizations’ management, governance, and leadership.

The Endowment Challenge Grant fund will provide up to $25,000 in matching funds to an organization’s endowment. Applications will be accepted in July.

Applications to these discretionary funds may be submitted February 15, July 16 or October 15. Nonprofits are limited to two concurrent grants and/or two applications per year.

“Our intent will always be to invest in organizations and programs that demonstrate significant and lasting outcomes,” said Les Garner, President and CEO of the GCRCF. “We fund innovative ideas that offer promising responses to our communities’ changing circumstances while strengthening the capacity of organizations. We’re also excited about providing leverage to nonprofits so our funds attract other resources.”

In 2011, the GCRCF processed nearly 700 competitive grant applications from 228 local nonprofits that were reviewed by committees of GCRCF board members and local volunteers. The Community Foundation awarded $5.9 million in grants (includes all grant programs, donor-advised and donor-designated funds) and scholarships.

“We have made improvements in our grant application review procedures to keep our administrative costs low, said Twedt-Ball. “We will turn greater attention to site visits and evaluation to learn more about local nonprofits and more accurately track community needs and trends.”

The GCRCF plans to launch an online grant application system in the fall that will offer even greater efficiencies for nonprofits and grantees.

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation is a critical resource for Linn County, Iowa, by funding nonprofit activities in four essential areas: Arts and Culture, Community Development and the Environment, Education and Health and Human Services.

With total assets of $110 million as of November 30, 2011, the mission of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation is to connect donors to the priorities they care about and to the needs of the community, to increase charitable giving and to provide leadership on important community issues. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site at www.gcrcf.org. For good. For ever.

The Triune Building is owned by Sandy Johnson, who plans to rennovate the building. Ms. Johnson is also the Mayor of Washington and a recent retiree hoping to work on a challenging project, which this certainly is.

Triune Building, 210-212 S. Marion Ave., Washington IA

Gov. Terry Bransted, Sen. Tom Harkin, Mayor Sandy Johnson, Amy Vetter, Marge Kline, Don Kline, Craig Swift, Terry Philips

According to Main Street Iowa, 

The Challenge Grant program is funded through an appropriation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  Since the first appropriation in 2002, this program has awarded a total of $4.9 million and has leveraged approximately $36.9 million in local investments.

Since Congress has stopped doing special appropriations, this is likely the last HUD Main Street Challenge Grant for the foreseeable future. Senator Tom Harkin has been instrumental in securing these appropriations since 2002.

In its 3-year history, Main Street Washington has received one other HUD Main Street Challenge Grant, which was $50,000 to do facade and building improvements to the BodyWrx Fitness Center on the East side of the Washington town square.

BodyWrx – beforeBodyWrx – after

There were a total of 9 HUD Main Street Challenge Grants awarded for $430,000.  Other projects awarded in The Corridor include:

• Czech Village/New Bohemia (Cedar Rapids) – $50,000 for restoration of buildings at 1113 & 1117 3rd St. SE.
• Main Street West Branch – $30,000 for restoration of a building at 109 W. Main St.

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Nearly 700 business, non-profit, education, industry and government leaders are registered for the event at the Coralville Marriott. Buettner will discuss the world’s ”hotspots of human health and vitality,” which he calls Blue Zones, and what they do that helps them live so long.

“It’s exciting to know that the healthiest people in the world have no formal exercise program or prescribed “diet,” said Nancy Quellhorst, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Their environment naturally promotes healthy living that doesn’t require self-discipline. Our community would like to set the example for Iowa by incorporating Blue Zones principles to foster individual wellness and a healthier workforce.”

Senator Bob Dvorsky, Representative Vicki Lensing, Johnson County Board Supervisors Pat Harney, Terrence Neuzil and Janelle Rettig, Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett and North Liberty Mayor Tom Salm are among the elected officials scheduled to be in attendance.

A social hour kicks off at 5 p.m., followed by dinner, and a brief program beginning at 5:45 p.m. The banquet will be held in the Coral Ballroom at the Coralville Marriott.

The event follows Blue Zones sign-up day on February 1. The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the cities of Coralville, Iowa City and North Liberty, the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) and Hy-vee to boost support for the Blue Zones Project.

The Chamber is leading the Iowa City area to become one of ten designated Blue Zones communities. The community-based approach will transform the environments in which Iowans live, work and play to improve their emotional, physical and social health.

Citizen support is an important selection factor, so the Chamber encourages citizens to take part and to register support at www.bluezonesproject.com. Three events will take place on Feb. 1 to engage the community in the project.

• Visitors to Coralville and Iowa City Hy-vee locations will have the opportunity to register support at an in-store Blue Zones station.
• ICCSD will take part in a text mob, in which students will collectively register support for Blue Zones by texting “BZP” to 772937.
• Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett, Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek and North Liberty Mayor Tom Salm will sign a joint letter of support for Blue Zones.

When registering support at www.bluezonesproject.com, click on the green button “I’m a Citizen. Support Your Community.” Under the “City” field, please enter Iowa City Area and use your home zip code. You may also pledge by texting “BZP” to 772937.

 The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of more than 1,000 members, actively fosters a better business environment through community and economic development, member services and public policy advocacy.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.”

The new facility opened in October, 2009 and is a tremendous cultural anchor for the community and the downtown. The Library moved 2 blocks from where it had been located for over 100 years. The Washington Library Foundation and Library Board started planning for a new facility in 2005 after receiving a significant estate donation from David Elder.

The facility was designed by OPN Architects of Cedar Rapids, and the concept was developed through a public planning, charette process that they facilitated.

The $6 million facility was funded by many local donations, a $1.2M city bond, a $1M grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, and a Vision Iowa/Community Attractions and Tourism grant.

Photo by Jeff Batterson

The Washington Library is one of two LEED Certified buildings in Washington County, Iowa. The other one is the Wellman Parkside Activites Center, which opened in January, 2010.

Over 14,000 compliant and paperless DVIRs are being generated and certified daily, the company says. The DVIR implementation will eliminate over 9 million paper based forms annually from being created, filed, stored, and purged.

Read the full story at www.icadgroup.com/news.

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LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.”

The new facility opened in October, 2009 and is a tremendous cultural anchor for the community and the downtown. The Library moved 2 blocks from where it had been located for over 100 years. The Washington Library Foundation and Library Board started planning for a new facility in 2005 after receiving a significant estate donation from David Elder.

The facility was designed through a public planning process facilitated by OPN Architects of Cedar Rapids.

The $6 million facility was funded by many local donations, a $1.2M city bond, a $1M grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, and a Vision Iowa/Community Attractions and Tourism grant.

Photo by Jeff Batterson

The Washington Library is one of two LEED Certified buildings in Washington County, Iowa. The other one is the Wellman Parkside Activites Center, which opened in January, 2010.

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•  Paper-filing your return — think: slow and keypunch errors
•  Fudging the numbers
•  Failing to file or filing late — think: big penalties
•  Using the IRS as a savings account
•  Not taking deductions you are entitled to in the mistaken belief it will decrease your chances of an audit — guess again
•  Turning long-term capital gains into ordinary income by not waiting a few days
•  Buying municipal bonds because they are “tax free”
•  Doing anything just because it is tax favored or deductible
•  Failing to do tax loss harvesting with your portfolio — think: interest-free loan to the IRS
•  Assuming tax rates will go down — think: You have got to be kidding
•  Having large life insurance policies without a irrevocable life insurance trust —  think: gifts to the IRS
•  Not doing annual gifting if your estate will be taxable

Tim Terry

Dumb Investment Mistakes

•  Not diversifying — think: roulette
•  Leverage, leverage, leverage
•  Not understanding investments — think: four years in college to understand how to make a living and not investing time to learn the fundamentals of investing
•  Not having an investment philosophy
•  Expecting investments to conform to “your” timetable
•  Putting all your investments in a country with only 4 percent of the world’s population and a mountain of debt — think: USA.
•  Ignoring emerging markets
•  Setting unrealistic expectations on investment performance
•  Assuming real estate, wages, stocks and investments will continue to go up — think: gravity
•  Using your home as a credit card
•  Not using 529 Plans for your children’s college savings — think: tax free
•  Following the headlines to inform your investment decisions — think of a boy with a yo-yo walking up the stairs
•  Complacency — I know it is a pain to get rid of those losers but …
•  Failing to think long-term — successful investing is about slow and steady accumulation of assets over time
•  Holding investments to get long-term capital gains treatment without considering market risk

General Financial Mistakes

•  Impulsive decision making
•  Spending to your earning level — think: Oops!
•  Not staying on top of declining interest rates to refinance loans — the banker is not going to call you
•  Assuming you have to refinance to get a better rate because your mortgage has been sold on the secondary market
•  Deciding that vacation home is just what you need, then having to finance it
•  Failure to carry adequate life insurance
•  Failing to have a will — think: chaos and lots of fees
•  No estate plan to minimize taxes — think, again: gifts to the IRS
•  Ignoring reality — hey, a budget is just reality
•  Thinking Social Security will be there for you — hello!
•  Not setting financial goals and sticking to them
•  Not reviewing your financial plan at least annually
•  Putting off saving for retirement until your later years — think: $2,000 a year for 25 years earning 5 percent grows to almost $100,000
•  Lottery mindsets
•  Allowing emotions to influence your financial decisions
•  Not living within your means
•  Having no rainy-day fund
•  Living on credit
•  Not waiting to purchase something with cash
•  Not saving when times are good
•  Trying to keep up the Joneses
•  Keeping up with the Joneses
•  Not having adequate health insurance
•  Not teaching your children to be financially responsible — think: “The Return of the Dependents”
•  Not establishing good credit
•  Missing a great educational opportunity by not learning from your financial mistakes
•  Following the blind: advice from friends who may know slightly more than you
•  Loaning money to family or friends
•  Acting as a co-signer

Other Financial Mistakes

•  Skipping a loan payment (Skipping a payment now only adds a payment at the end and you pay a lot more in interest.)
•  Extended warranties
•  Payday loans
•  Incurring prepayment penalties without obtaining a correspondent interest benefit

And let’s not forget Tiger!

•  Tiger Woods tried to sell an image while privately maintaining a completely opposite life style. This resulted in the loss of endorsement deals, a drop in his game and a very expensive divorce. Talk about financial disasters.

Find your passion. Adapt to the new digital landscape.

The clamor of imperatives grows louder with each day.

Leslie Wright

There are lots of voices to tell us what it looks like when we become any of the above but few resources that offer a road map that results in real transformation for individuals and organizations.

Building a successful, resilient organization in the face of uncertainty is a challenge we all face. A resilient and dynamic community is built by the individuals and organizations who contribute to it.

These are individuals and organizations that are positive, innovative and looking to the future. And this future depends on moving beyond reactionary strategies and risk management.
It means pursuing a proactive and visionary transformation.

Business leaders in the Corridor believe that success will come to those who create a new value equation, an equation that arises from innovation and activating the potential of their teams.

The ability to achieve your vision and goals already exists inside your organization. However, it is your organization’s culture that will determine whether or not you achieve the results you desire. Achieving 21st century imperatives requires flexible, creative, energized teams who are equipped to perform in complex environments and collaborate with a diverse array of partners.

I have learned, with the help of training, that to get to the root cause of organizational issues that negatively impact performance, it comes down to analyzing systems — and eventually people. We must take a critical and honest look at our engagement and attitudes, our persistence and energy, our creativity and the way we treat each other both inside and outside the organization.

Too often we merely try on new performance management systems with activities that focus on telling people what to do or how to feel.

Unfortunately more often than not the impact of these investments is short-term. In a matter of weeks, old behaviors that caused negative issues in the first place have resurfaced and we’re right back to where we started.

Or we lament our inability to hire the right people when in fact we have not created the culture that ensures exceptional performance. We focus on eliminating weaknesses instead of releasing the untapped potential of ourselves and our teams.

When you go after the root cause of performance issues, it’s not enough to tell people to change their behavior or what to think. You need to give people the tools and best practices to change permanently — from the inside out.

The Pacific Institute has been doing just that for more than 30 years, using leading edge principals of positive organizational psychology coupled with time-tested implementation techniques. Results have shown that people who implement the tools and techniques that emerge from the training are sharing many of the following traits:

•  Heightened self-confidence
•  Self-motivation
•  Accountability in all aspects of their lives
•  Goal and end-results orientation
•  High engagement
•  Open-mindedness and flexibility
•  Creativity

Participants note that, as individuals and as organizations, they have achieved more aggressive goals since graduating from this training. Their organizations are more aligned, effective and strategic.

And whether your organization is small or large, there is value for you.

More than 200 people in the Cedar Rapids area participated in the first sessions of the Pacific Institute’s Investment in Excellence. The list includes large and small businesses, city and county government, schools and not-for-profit organizations.
The next Investment in Excellence session will start Feb. 16, organized by the United Way of East Central Iowa.

Join us in transforming our organizations and the community we live in for the better.

To find out more or to register, go to www.UnitedWayofEastCentralIowa.org/pacific-institute. The next session will begin Feb. 16.

To view a short video about the Pacific Institute, check here.

And an about the Pacific Institute, go here.

She was especially excited about how the presenter had revealed to the lunch crowd “the secrets that they don’t want you to know about.”

Michael Chevy Castranova

She couldn’t recall any of these “secrets” right off hand, but they had to do with “stuff in Europe.” That kind of thing.

She figured I knew these secrets, too, being the business editor at a daily newspaper.

Oh, my.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Our friend is bright and has made her way in the world to feed and clothe herself and her family. Now she’s seeking some additional financial guidance.

And these informational lunch-sales pitches can be of good value for folk hoping to gain some control over their financial future — they can show you some options maybe you’d not considered, and introduce you to honest financial counselors.

But this notion of unlocking the mysteries to some hidden Land of Riches, known only to a private elite, complete with guarded handshakes and whispered chants — and maybe a fez — well, sorry. There’s no one Kevin Trudeau-like diet book for money, no magic decoder ring.

Learning about investing is just like anything else. Suzanne Farrell, one of George Balanchine’s most famous ballerinas, once noted, after being praised for her “luck” in having such talent, that it also requires showing up to work on technique eight hours a day, every day, week after week, for decades ….

If our friend wants to find out about the ever-shifting sands of the business world, I told her to try this very daily newspaper. Alongside stories on Corridor companies, we also run features on the Federal Reserve and the latest high-jinks on Wall Street, as well as why you should care about what happens in Ireland and Greece.

The national dailies, too, in print and online cover the “mysteries” of the money world — the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Weekly business magazines (not having muddied their mission as much as news weeklies did years back) still can do a fine job of connecting the dots — look at the Economist.

As with so many undertakings, it’s not complicated. Of course, that’s not the same as saying it’s easy.

I realize as I claim that the world of finance is not a private club, there are those at the very top who prove me absolutely wrong.

As the Occupy Wall Street movement continued to gain worldwide exposure, and inch up in public sentiment — when they weren’t diluting their own message by meandering off about spy drones and such — some members of that moneyed club went on the offensive.

“I am a fat cat, I’m not ashamed,” declared Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot and a self-proclaimed 1 percenter, to Bloomberg News a few weeks ago. Chimed in Tom Golisano, billionaire founder of Paychex Inc., the payroll processing corporation: “If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit.”

“Instead of an attack on the 1 percent, let’s call it an attack on the very productive,” said John Allison IV, a director at America’s ninth-largest bank, BB&T Corp.

In an open, post-Thanksgiving letter to President Obama, Leon Cooperman, former Goldman Sachs money-management unit CEO and now Omega Advisors chairman, wrote: “The 1 percent are not the scourge that they are too often made out to be. (They are not) a monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot.”

Indeed, Cooperman added, these “moneyed Americans” manufacture merchandise that “fill store shelves at Christmas.”

In other words, hey, the super rich are people, too.

We’ll have to see how this counterattack by billionaires plays out in the long let’s-soak-the-rich tax war. But some of this chatter among the top tier of our upper echelon — this lack of, shall we say, grace — reminded me of something.

And that was America’s first poster boy for capitalism, Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

“Daddy” Warbucks was the self-made gazillionaire hero of the phenomenally long-running newspaper comic strip, “Little Orphan Annie” (1924-2010). He would drop in to save Annie from certain death at the hands of evil doers — plights on occasion brought about by her association with the mega-rich Warbucks himself.

Warbucks made his money in many ways — some of those schemes were quite kept mysterious and unexplained. But he remained unrepentant.

In one 1937 sequence, Annie comes upon “Daddy” in his counting room where the kingpin is gazing upon massive heaps of diamonds, emeralds and rubies. Admits Warbucks: “Yep, quite a fortune — more than any one man should have, as those with little say of those who have a lot — till they too get a lot.”

Many times the notion of sharing Warbucks’s wealth comes up, especially when the strip was in the hands of its creator, Harold Gray. But chipper Annie — an orphan, remember, and frequently shown down to her last dime while sleeping on a grim city heating grate — never misses a beat to proclaim that as long as she’s capable of hard work, she’ll take no handout.

“Liberal giving brings happiness to others,” Warbucks opines. “It may warm my vanity, but it brings me little pleasure. No, Annie, no amount of wealth can buy happiness.”

But, as time goes on in the comic strip, even “Daddy” comes to believe his wealth has a part to play in society. One example is through R&D of various unspecified technology — which in turn will make him richer.

“It’s my fortune that I propose to spend in an effort to help mankind — if that’s being a sap, I’m proud to be a sap,” he declares.

Leapin’ lizards.

Retail growth in Coralville has skyrocketed since the city began using TIF in 1998 to develop land that is now Coral Ridge Mall. The city has borrowed over $200 million in bonds to be repaid by tax increment financing, Hayworth told the House Government Oversight Committee.

The city is using TIF to finance its Iowa River Landing commercial project, which last fall landed a Von Maur department store as its retail anchor. The Von Maur deal, heavily subsidized with TIF, has raised eyebrows and the ire of neighboring Iowa City, which has a stronger possibility of losing its own Von Maur department store at Sycamore Mall as a result.

Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth narrated a history of Coralville’s use of TIF, emphasizing its benefits, then fielded questions – which focused on Von Maur.

“By the time you’ve opened the store, you have a private developer with about $20 million in improvements and about $10 million worth of skin in the game?” asked State Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield. ”So you’ve lessened their risk by half on that development.”

Tax Increment Financing  is a mechanism under Iowa law that cities and counties can use to finance public improvement projects and to fund economic, housing and residential development incentives. It is based on the theory that the improvements will increase the local government property tax base, and that the “increment” or difference between the original tax base and post-development tax base, can be used to finance the cost of the improvement.

Local governments must create a special district meeting criteria for the TIF program. Local governments and schools continue to receive property taxes based on the original property tax valuation, while funds from the increment are set aside to pay back bonds used to finance the improvements

TIF advocates argue that it’s a fair exchange for other local taxing bodies such as schools and counties, because the additional jobs and investment wouldn’t have taken place without using TIF.

Committee members asked what complaints the city had received about its TIF use, and how much tax revenue was redirected from other taxing bodies into TIF.

The complaints about Von Maur have focused on whether a Von Maur relocation using incentives was appropriate, not about its legality, Hayworth said. He insisted that the Iowa River Landing had enough projected TIF revenue to cover its debt over 30 years from existing projects, but has land for other projects that could accelerate the the debt retirement.

Speaking against Coralville’s heavy TIF reliance were a coalition of 40 businesses that say they are concerned about the city’s TIF use to fund projects that compete with private developers, and the superintendent of Clear Creek-Amana  Community School District.

“We believe the city should be out of the bricks and mortar businesses,” said Kevin O’Brien, a McDonald’s franchisee who spoke for the Citizens for Responsible Growth in Taxation.

A major target of the group’s ire was the city’s providing a grant to its private development partner Oliver McMillan to buy the Von Maur site for $1.5 million, with an agreement that it sell the land to Von Maur for $10. An attorney for the group argued that it violates the spirit of the state’s economic development grant law.

One of the TIF-financed projects touted by Hayworth, the city-owned and TIF-financed Coralville Mariott Hotel and convention center lost $3.4 million in years ended June 30, 2009 and June 30, 2010, the business group contended.

Coralville has $11,049 in TIF debt per person, the group argued, and recently received a debt downgrade from the Moody’s rating service because of the “significant leveraging of the city’s tax base and tax increment financing districts” among other things.

Developer Hunter Parks of The Hunter Companies said a Iowa River Landing deal to bring Backpocket Brewing is  an example of the group’s concerns. He said the city is proposing to finance the equipment and building for the microbrewery and bottling operating, although the company has never before  done bottling,.

“If they don’t make it and it comes back to the city, what is the city going to do with that (building and equipment)?” he asked. “Then it becomes competition,” he said, for other building owners and developers.

Clear Creek-Amana School District Superintendent Denise Schares said she began hearing community concerns weekly about the constraining effects of Coralville’s TIF use on district revenues after she became superintendent about two years ago.

TIF use in Johnson County diverted $2,974 per child in property tax revenue in the most recent year of tax collections, Schares said. The state makes up the shortfall to 87.5 percent, she said, “but 12.5 percent to make up to 100 percent impacts our local taxpayers.”

Johnson County Commissioner Rod Sullivan later spoke for reform at a meeting of the Iowa Senate’s Economic Development Committee.

Sullivan said heavy use of TIF has limited Johnson County’s ability to respond to needs such as roads, corrections and mental health. He said TIF detracts from democracy, by allowing municipalities to undertake “projects that are massive” without putting them to a vote.

Hayworth began the Government Oversight discussion with a presentation highlighting the city’s use of TIF to redevelop industrial brownfields in Iowa River Landing, to bring over 1,000 jobs to the University of Iowa’s Oakdale Research Park, and to facilitate the headquarters of Integrated DNA Technologies, a leading manufacturer of synthetic DNA.

The rest of Johnson County, as well as Scott County and Linn County, continued to have retail sales growth during the city’s period of TIF-financed retail projects, Hayworth said. He described the Coralville Mariott Hotel and Convention Center as a major success for the community to support its hotel industry by keeping University of Iowa-related conferences in Iowa. Since it was built, he said, two additional hotels have been constructed and two more are planned.

Government Oversight Committee Chair Chris Hagenow, R-Windsor Heights, told other committee members that he isn’t attempting to drive the inquiry to any particular conclusion. He and other members asked several pointed questions, howeer.

“This (Iowa River Landing) is a a very large public project with a very long term that isn’t completely in focus,” Hagenow concluded. He said there are concerns  that TIF-financed funds are being used to compete with the sectoro and that “relocating an anchor store – these things do not occur in a vacuum.”

Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett, who observed, said he believes the desire of other development interests to get Von Maur was driving the opposition to the city’s project rather than concerns about TIF. He said two of the business opponents present had benefitted from TIF projects themselves.

“I feel in my mind that they (Von Maur) were going to leave Iowa City anyway,” Fausett said. “I know they were in negotiations with General Growth (Properties, owner of Coral Ridge Mall) and they had communications with Iowa City.”"

State Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, was skeptical after the meeting.

“I’m afraid it’s a little dog and pony show,” Jacoby said. “Not all of the facts are getting out there. Is it a discussion of TIF, or is it a discussion of Von Maur?”

Senate Econommic Development Committee Chair Steven Sodders, D-State Center, plans to introduce a TIF reform bill on Monday, he told his committe.

The bill is expected to restrict municipalities from entering new TIF debt agreements for more than 15 years without agreement from other taxing entities, and to restrict new TIF debt to fund public buildings. It will also require the state to create a searchable web site with information about TIF certifications.

Representatives of Cedar Rapids, Newton, Des Moines and other cities described their TIF uses and spoke in support of keeping TIF as a viable economic tool at the meeting.

Economic Development Specialist Jeff Rossate of the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Allliance said 30 metro projects bringing $344 million in capital investment have relied on TIF in the metro area. Only 18 of them also leveraged other state incentive programs, he said.

Rossate said most of those existing TIFs will expire in the next five to eight years. He urged the General Assembly to keep flexibility in the program.

Greene becomes the first coach operator in the U.S. to install the ISE Fleet Services eFleetSuite EOBR solution across its fleet, and maybe the only operator in the U.S. to have totally trashed conventional logbooks.

ISE Fleet Services is based in Coralville.  To read the full story, visit www.icadgroup.com/news and click the story headline.

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The labor force and employment numbers in metro Linn and Johnson Counties experienced similar trends. Several neighboring Counties, like Keokuk and Louisa, experienced increasing Labor Force and employment numbers, but also increasing numbers of unemployed as jobs did not keep up with the growth in the labor force.

Of the estimated 600 unemployed persons, 206 were drawing Unemployment Insurance benefits (up from 155 in November). Only about 1/3 of unemployed persons are receiving Unemployment benefits. For 15 of those receiving Unemployment benefits, their last payment occurred in December, while 62 received their first Unemployment benefit payment (down from 40 in November).

Lydia Brown, Partner, Skywalk Group
Karl Cassell, Executive Director, Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission
Greg Dunn, President & CEO Benefit Solutions
Maureen Kenney, Attorney with Bradley & Riley PC

Chris DeWolf, board chair
Cheryle Mitvalsky, board vice chair

In December 2010, unemployment was 5.0%.

The labor force and employment numbers in metro Linn and Johnson Counties experienced similar trends. Severl neighborhing Counties, like Keokuk and Louisa, experienced increasing Labor Force and employment numbers, but also increasing numbers of unemployed as jobs did not keep up with the growth in the labor force.

The additional channels bring the total number of HD channels available to 101 for Mediacom customers in Linn, Johnson, and seven surrounding Eastern Iowa Counties.

Eight channels were added to the Digital Plus tiers, which are channels above the Family Cable package. They include CBS Sports HD, Fox Sport Soccer HD, and BBC America HD.

Fourteen additions were made to HD Premium channels, including HBO Latino HD, Showtime Extreme HD and Starz Kids & Family HD.

The boost past the 100-HD channel mark is a result of Mediacom’s analog-to-digital reclamation project that eliminated analog reception for 50 channels in the Family Cable package, according to a statement.

Mediacom Regional Vice President Doug Frank said no other cable system in Iowa currently provides 100 HD video channels.

Frank said the company’s digital transition in February and March of 2010 meant new digital adapters for customers still using analog TV sets, but Mediacom promised to deliver 100 HD channels and the fastest broadband speed.

The nine-county area around Cedar Rapids was its first site for the kind of upgrade that replaced a digital simulcast with a digital-only lineup for all but 12 channels. Since it was completed in early April, similar upgrades have been completed or started in six other service areas.

As the cost of electricity rises, many Iowa businesses are searching for ways to reduce their utility bill by consuming less, or even producing their own electricity on site.

The price of solar photovoltaics – the panels that use semiconducting materials to convert sunlight directly into electricity – has dropped rapidly in recent years, making them more affordable than ever before. By 2013 the United States is projected to be the largest market for photovoltaics in the world.

Rep. Tyler Olson, Vice President of Paulson Electric will moderate the discussion. Paulson Electric installed a 20 kW solar photovoltaic array on it’s Cedar Rapids headquarters in December. “Energy costs are predicted to rise at 3% annually, but even assuming flat energy prices our solar array will pay for itself in seven years,” said Olson.

Other expert panelists include:

•   Brent Taylor, D.C. Taylor Co.
•   Mark Henning, Eagle Point Solar
•   Mike Fisher, HR Green
•   Tim Dwight, Integrated Power Corp.
•   Dave Klosterman, Van Meter Inc.

The event will take place from 3:00 to 4:30 PM on Friday at CSPS Hall (1103 3rd St SE) in Cedar Rapids. Admission is free, but attendees must register at http://solarpanel.eventbrite.com, as seating is limited.

The mission of the Regional Sustainable Business Alliance (RSBA) is to create a sustainable business community in which environmental impact is minimized, and economic growth potential is maximized. RSBA does this through events, informational resources, and providing opportunities for professionals to network and share green business knowledge.

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Many organizations struggle with implementing ERM and identifying how, and at what level, to integrate the system into their business. Managers often indicate they already are aware of the relevant risks for their respective areas of the business.

In these situations, what value can ERM provide, and how can it enable any better perspective or management of risks and risk data?

FIVE KEY BENEFITS

The most impact and recognition of value is often perceived more at the executive and director levels than other layers of management. Five key benefits and values from ERM include:

1. Increased consistency and communication

ERM provides a standard terminology and conceptual framework for all members and departments in the organization. This consistency and commonality provides improved opportunities for communication and coordination among various layers and departments.

In addition, communication regarding risk is often lacking within organizations due to concerns of confidentiality, propriety and job security. As a result, data and information relative to strategic risks — and risks to achievement of corporate objectives and plans — are not shared across department lines.

2. Enhanced reporting implementation

ERM supports better structure, reporting and analysis of risks. Risk “dashboards” — consolidating risks across the entire enterprise — increase the focus of directors and executives, enabling better decisions relative to risk thresholds, risk appetite and risk tolerance.

The reporting, therefore, has better categorization and classification of risk data, allowing various types of reporting — department versus entity-wide, financial versus compliance, high versus low risk, quantitative versus qualitative factors, etc.

Ultimately the greatest overall value from ERM and related reporting is the timeliness, conciseness and flexibility, which facilitate improved decision-making capabilities within the executive and director levels, and in other layers of management.

ERM helps unlock synergies and potential for increased analysis and assessment of risks by aggregating and sharing all corporate risk data and factors, and evaluating them on a consolidated basis.

3. Improved focus and perspective of risk-data use

ERM methodologies and techniques provides a means to further identify and assess key performance indicators regarding risks. This allows a method to measure and better quantify risk factors and tolerances.

The use of key metrics and measurements of risk further improve the value of reporting and analysis.

ERM models also permit more effective and complete viewpoints of risk. Traditional risk practices focus on risk from a perspective of mitigation, acceptance or avoidance.

However, effective ERM processes will give management a framework in which to evaluate risk as an opportunity to increase competitive positions and exploit certain market, operational and related conditions.

4. More Efficient Coordination of Regulatory and Compliance Matters

Bond rating agencies, financial statement auditors, regulatory examiners and other audit activities — including internal audit — have begun to test and often leverage and use monitoring and reporting data from ERM programs.

As ERM data involves identifying and monitoring controls and mitigations relevant to various risks across the organization, this information can provide an effective means for leveraging and reducing the effort and cost of such audits and reviews.

4. Cost Effective Management of Risk

Through all of the items noted above, ERM can enable better cost management and cost effectiveness related to audit activities; better management of market, competitive and economic conditions; and increased leverage and consolidation of disparate risk management functions.

Organizations can use ERM data and reporting to more effectively coordinate with investment custodians, better manage capital/investment decisions and make more timely decisions regarding hedging instruments.

By potentially reducing the overall cost of risk-management processes, reducing audit costs or minimizing resources needed for regulatory responses, and streamlining monitoring and reporting functions, ERM has the capability to reduce the cost of the existing processes and functions for these respective components within the organization.

WHAT IS ERM?

ERM is a process that is:

•  Implemented by the entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel.
•  Applied in strategy setting and across the enterprise.
•  Designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk within the risk appetite and/or risk tolerance.
•  Implemented to provide reasonable assurance regarding mitigation, avoidance and management of risk factors and circumstances, as well as promote opportunities to capitalize on risk events and thresholds.

Jed had a handful of booklets printed bearing various pointed remarks related to driving or parking. When you were particularly aggrieved by a fellow driver, you were to tear off the appropriate page and stick it under the offender’s windshield wiper.

As best as I can recall — my own complimentary booklet is long gone — the messages ran along these lines:

“If you moved your car a little more, you could take up three parking spaces.”

“If you drove any slower, you’d be going backward.”

“Who taught you to drive — Evil Kenievel?”

You get the idea. Though not exactly achieving the cleverness quotient of Oscar Wilde, the message booklet would be a real barn burner, Jed insisted.

Michael Chevy Castranova

But what would happen, I asked, if the car’s owner returned while you leaving one of these witty pages on his car?

That hadn’t been factored into the business plan, Jed admitted, by what he really needed now was to patent the booklet — which meant he wanted to hire a patent lawyer.

As you might guess, the booklet plan faded away, ultimately reaching the fate it deserved — neglect and occasional embarrassment when brought up at parties.

I don’t believe Jed ever got as far as contacting a patent lawyer. Which is probably good, as they surely must be busy people.
Consider just a few of the truly large issues roiling the patent law field today, all of which have consequences for businesses and investors here:

•  Patent “trolls” (around for a while now)
•  Patent “cliffs” (happening now and ongoing)
•  First-to-file (some of it’s been the law of the land since this past September).

(I’m using more quote marks than usual as I wouldn’t want to mislabel a company a “troll” if it isn’t, the way I incorrectly identified Chip and Dale as squirrels rather than chipmunks in a December column. The poor creatures could be scarred for life — assuming they could read, of course.)

The public radio program “This American Life” devoted an entire show to patent “trolls” this past July. In its very thorough report, compiled in conjunction with NPR’s Planet Money, the essence was this: “Trolls” are companies that buy up patents from inventors who’ve been unable to get their projects off the ground (my pal Jed, for example).

Then, given the incredibly broad interpretations for so many patents, they “troll” for inventors and companies with even remotely similar projects.

Then they strike: They send letters, claiming theft, and threaten a sizable lawsuit if the inventor doesn’t settle.

In addition, some of these “trolls” also sell “insurance” to companies to protect them in case some evil doers in the future try to sue for patent infringement.

One of the interviewees on “This American Life” used the phrase “malevolent outsiders.”

None of the spokespersons on the program thought of themselves as “trolls” or “malevolent.” Their companies exist, they noted, to help inventors who’ve been unsuccessful commercializing their ideas by paying them something.

One of the businesses that has been buying up patents possesses 35,000 patents, the program pointed out. For the record, patent infringement lawsuits jumped 70 percent between 2004 and 2009.

Patent “cliffs” you may have heard about, but maybe not under that term. This refers to the challenge now facing pharmaceutical giants, many of whom count on big-selling, brand-name drugs.

Pfizer, for example, earned almost $11 billion in revenues in 2010 on Lipitor. But its patent on the anti-cholesterol drug expired in early December.

As noted in the Economist magazine, “in all, blockbusters with a combined $170 billion in annual sales will go off patent by 2015.” You see why they call it a cliff.

Some of the big pharmas are finagling deals with various health-plan management companies to prolong that drop-off. Pfizer, for example, is offering a special price for Lipitor.

As for first-to-file: President Obama on Sept. 16, 2011, signed patent reform into law that proponents said would bring the United States in line with almost all the industrialized nations on this planet.

Opponents warn it merely rewards not the first to invent, but the first to file. That is, the companies with the fastest lawyers.
“This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the right of small inventors,” claimed U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to CNN.

Different parts of the “reform” — there go those darned quotes again, Pa — take effect on different dates. The first-to-file segment will become law March 16, 2013.

At the Iowa City Area Economic Development Group’s annual meeting this past September, keynote speaker Debi Durham, to my surprise, praised the president’s approval of first-to-file.

So at the end of the lunch, I nabbed the Iowa Economic Development director to ask about this. What about, I wondered, the even bigger hurdle this will plant in the way of inventors — in a country that prides itself on its clever thinkers and tinkerers?

Durham pondered for a moment, then said: “Hmm ….” She had not, she confirmed, heard that side of it yet.

Durham, to her credit, admitted the law will bear watching and maybe a reconsideration after it gets going. (See George C. Ford’s story on first-to-file here.)

Here’s a footnote: Who invented the radio?

Wrong.

Guglielmo Marconi usually gets the credit. But Nikola Tesla was preparing to transmit his first-ever radio signal in New York in 1895 when his lab caught fire.

Marconi got there first, laying his patent claim in 1886, and he later won a Nobel Prize. Tesla’s radio patent came a year later.
It wasn’t until 1943, after both men were dead, that the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in to declare this wasn’t fair. The patent was awarded to Tesla. (Dead, yes.)

Had there been first-to-file in force, Tesla wouldn’t have stood a chance.

But some patent lawyers could have been tremendously busy.

According to a news release, Timothy Barrett, director of papermaking facilities at the UI Center for the Book, led a team in examining more than 1,500 historical papers from between the 14th and 19th centuries.

The three-year study found that older papers held up best over the years due to higher levels of calcium and gelatin, according to the release.

“The research results will impact the manufacture of modern paper for archival applications, and the care and conservation of historical works on paper,” Barrett said in the release.

Although  paper materials are increasingly viewed in digital form, Barrett said in the release that paper materials will continue to be produced and preserved as “essential” back ups to digital scans for centuries to come.

For example, the release said Barrett and the UI papermaking team worked with the National Archives staff in 2000 to create handmade paper for the Archive Rotunda in Washington DC.

In addition to the study’s impact on papermaking, the findings shed light on the context of many historical documents, the release said. For example, if a paper was poorer quality, researchers could better guess the author’s financial situation.

The team included Irene Brückle, professor at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, Germany, Mark Ormsby, a physicist at the National Archives and Records Administration, Jennifer Wade from the National Science Foundation, Michael Schilling and Joy Mazurek from the Getty Conservation Institute, and Robert Shannon from Bruker Elemental.

UI team members included Joseph Lang, a professor of statistics and actuarial science, and Jessica White, a UI graduate student.

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For more: http://unitedwayofeastcentraliowa.org/2012/01/18/free-income-tax-assistance/